Situational awareness is of utmost importance when operating a vehicle, such as an aircraft. Aircraft crew typically have a very limited awareness of their aircraft's dimensions and virtually no awareness of the proximity of the aircraft's wingtips and tail in relationship to other aircraft and airfield structures during ground maneuvers, such as in holding areas, near gate ramps, and near airport buildings. This compromise in situational awareness during ground maneuvers can increase the likelihood of ground incursions. Ground incursions between aircraft and airfield structures, or other aircraft, can be relatively expensive and potentially hazardous for the aircraft owners, operators and airport authorities. For example, aircraft are currently able to broadcast their position, altitude, and other related information through ADS-B. This information can be received by other aircraft within a 100 NM (nautical mile) radius, including aircraft performing ground maneuvers. Aircraft within that vicinity can pick up the information and can then display it on their cockpit displays. While this type of information is useful for preventing some aircraft incursions during runway ground maneuvers, interpreting the information received from such broadcast while maneuvering the aircraft in very tight, congested areas, such as holding areas and gate ramps, is more difficult.
Modern aircraft displays can provide a visual presentation of information in both a graphical display and a textual display. Displays used in aircraft, and particularly those used in aircraft for flight planning and monitoring, are capable of displaying a considerable amount of information such as flight plan information, terrain information, airborne weather data ADS-B data, obstacle data, traffic sensor data or Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) data, relative terrain data and Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) data. The displayed information is crucial to aircraft operation, and can provide situational awareness to the pilot when the aircraft is in the air, or on the ground.
The display of aircraft information to curtail incursions between two or more aircraft or between an aircraft and an airport structure is of great importance. Hence, there is a need for a display system and method that displays, in real-time, a zone of protection associated with aircraft during ground maneuvers. The display of this type of information would reduce the workload on the flight crew during taxi, and maneuver about gate ramps, in holding areas and near airfield structures, and/or reduce the probability of an aircraft incursion occurring during these ground maneuvers. The present invention addresses one or more of these needs.